The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it may be described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present technology.
Nanoparticles of different allotropes of the same element can have significantly different properties and uses. For example, nanoparticles of diamond carbon, due to their hardness and chemical stability, may have uses as in vivo drug carriers, coatings, and a variety of other nanotechnological applications. Nanoparticles of graphitic or amorphous carbon may have electrochemical or photovoltaic applications. Similarly, metal nanoparticles having different microcrystalline forms can have substantially different properties.
Reagents having an element, formally in oxidation state zero, complexed with a hydride molecule have been termed AERCs (Anionic Element Reagent Complexes). AERCs show characteristics of anionicity of the elemental component, or a degree of sharing of electron density from the hydride component to the elemental component. AERCs are stable, and have been shown to have utility for the synthesis of a wide variety of elemental nanoparticles, including compositions of single or multiple elements of varying types (e.g. metal, non-metal, metalloid, etc.)
It would be desirable to further expand this technology to enable the synthesis of nanoparticles of different allotropes of a given element.